By Brian Bonner, KyivPost
U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden
U.S. Vice President Joseph
Biden’s final days in office will be spent in Ukraine and Switzerland. The
White House issued a statement on Jan. 12 saying that Biden will travel from
Jan. 15-18, before leaving office on Jan. 20 after the inauguration of
President-elect Donald Trump and his vice president, Mike Pence.
According to the statement,
Biden will participate in bilateral meetings in Ukraine with President Petro
Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. Biden’s trip “will
underscore U.S. support — and highlight his personal involvement in providing
support — for Ukrainian independence, democratic development, prosperity. and
security. The trip will also celebrate 25 years of diplomatic relations, and
look forward to a steadfast partnership over the next 25 years.”
In Switzerland, Biden will
attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, deliver remarks on the Cancer
Moonshot and deliver an address on foreign policy besides participating in
several bilateral meetings.
Biden has been U.S. President
Barack Obama’s point person on Ukraine policy.
America and its European Union
allies have applied economic sanctions against Russia for its illegal
annexation of Crimea and its three-year war against the eastern Donbas, in
which 10,000 people have been killed.
Biden has also urged
Poroshenko and other Ukrainian leaders to more vigorously combat corruption.
This will be his fifth visit
to Ukraine since President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia on Feb. 22, 2014,
at the height of the EuroMaidan Revolution, in which more than 100 people were
killed by police snipers.
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